Psalm 91:5

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Terror by night.—Possibly a night attack by an enemy. (Comp. Song of Solomon 3:8; Proverbs 3:23-26.) Comp. Milton:

“To bless the doors from nightly harm.”

In this case the arrow flying by day would refer to dangers of actual battle. But it is quite possible that the latter may be merely the Oriental expression for the pestilence, since it is still so called by Arabians. “I desired to remove to a less contagious air. I received from Solyman the emperor this message: that the emperor wondered what I meant in desiring to remove my habitation. Is not the pestilence God’s arrow, which will always hit his mark?”—Quoted in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, from Busbequin’s Travels.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 91:5-6. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night — When evil accidents are most terrible and least avoidable; nor for the arrow — Any common and destructive calamity; (for such are commonly called God’s arrows;) that flieth by day — Which is the time for shooting arrows. The sense of the verse is, Thou shalt be kept from secret and open mischiefs at all times. Nor for the pestilence, &c. — This verse explains the former, and shows what that terror and arrow signify; that walketh in darkness — That makes progress and spreads death and desolation in an invisible manner, such as can neither be foreseen nor prevented; nor for the destruction at noon-day — That, like a bold enemy, assaults us openly, and though discovered cannot be resisted.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

91:1-8 He that by faith chooses God for his protector, shall find all in him that he needs or can desire. And those who have found the comfort of making the Lord their refuge, cannot but desire that others may do so. The spiritual life is protected by Divine grace from the temptations of Satan, which are as the snares of the fowler, and from the contagion of sin, which is a noisome pestilence. Great security is promised to believers in the midst of danger. Wisdom shall keep them from being afraid without cause, and faith shall keep them from being unduly afraid. Whatever is done, our heavenly Father's will is done; and we have no reason to fear. God's people shall see, not only God's promises fulfilled, but his threatenings. Then let sinners come unto the Lord upon his mercy-seat, through the Redeemer's name; and encourage others to trust in him also.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night - That which usually causes alarm at night - a sudden attack; an unexpected incursion of enemies; sudden disease coming on by night; or the pestilence which seems to love night, and to "walk in darkness." Any one of these things seems to be aggravated by night and darkness; and hence, we most dread them then. We cannot see their approach; we cannot measure their outlines; we know not the extent of the danger, or what may be the calamity.

Nor for the arrow that flieth by day - Whether shot from the bow of God - as pestilence and disease; or from the hand of man in battle. The idea is, that he that trusts in God will be calm. Compare the notes at Psalm 56:3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. terror—or, what causes it (Pr 20:2).

by night—then aggravated.

arrow—that is, of enemies.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By night, when evil accidents are most terrible and least avoidable.

The arrow; the pestilence, or any such common and destructive calamity; for such are frequently called God’s arrows, as Dent. Deu 32:23,42 La 3:12,13, &c.

By day, which is the time for shooting of arrows. The sense of the verse is, He shall be kept from secret and open mischiefs at all times.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night,.... The terrible things that happen in the night; as fire, storms and tempests, invasion of enemies, murders, thefts, and, robberies: a good man, when he has committed himself and his family to the care and protection of God by prayer, has no reason to be anxiously careful of these things, or to indulge a slavish fear about them; see Psalm 3:5, the Targum is,

"thou shall not be afraid for the fear of devils that walk in the night:''

so Jarchi interprets this, and the next verse, of such; as do others of the Jewish writers: a man that trusts in the Lord need not be afraid of men or devils: a fear of evil spirits is natural to men, and very early appeared; perhaps it took its rise from the fatal affair of the fall of our first parents, through an intercourse with an evil spirit; and ever since has been imprinted on human nature an aversion to evil spirits, and a dread of them, and even of all spirits in general; see Job 4:13,

nor for the arrow that flieth by day; the judgments of God, such as the sword, famine, and pestilence; these are called the arrows of God, Deuteronomy 32:23 (q), because they move swiftly, come suddenly, and strike surely, and are open and visible; they are sent by the Lord, and are ordered and directed by him, and hit and hurt whom he pleases, and none else; and therefore such who dwell in the secret of the Lord, and under his shadow, need not be distressed about them: the Targum interprets it of the arrow of the angel of death, which he sends out in the day; see Hebrews 2:14, so Jarchi understands it of a demon that flies like an arrow.

(q) ---- , Homer. Iliad. 1. v. 51, 53.

Geneva Study Bible

{e} Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

(e) The care that God has over his is sufficient to defend them from all dangers.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. Neither sudden assaults of enemies by night, nor open attacks by day (Song of Solomon 3:8; Jeremiah 6:4-5; Proverbs 3:24-25) shall have power to harm thee. The language is figurative: all hostility, whether secret or avowed, is meant.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night. Robbers constituted the chief "terror by night" (see Job 24:14-16; Jeremiah 49:9; Obadiah 1:5); but night attacks on the part of a foreign enemy were not uncommon (Song of Solomon 3:8; Isaiah 15:1). Nor for the arrow that fleth by day. Open war is probably intended, not sirocco, or pestilence, or "the arrows of the Almighty" (Job 6:4). The man who trusts in God will be specially protected in the peril of battle. Psalm 91:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

יקושׁ, as in Proverbs 6:5; Jeremiah 5:26, is the dullest toned from for יקושׁ or יוקשׁ, Psalm 124:7. What is meant is death, or "he who has the power of death," Hebrews 2:14, cf. 2 Timothy 2:26. "The snare of the fowler" is a figure for the peril of one's life, Ecclesiastes 9:12. In connection with Psalm 91:4 we have to call to mind Deuteronomy 32:11 : God protects His own as an eagle with its large strong wing. אברה is nom. unitatis, a pinion, to אבר, Isaiah 40:31; and the Hiph. הסך, from סכך, with the dative of the object, like the Kal in Psalm 140:8, signifies to afford covering, protection. The ἅπαξ λεγ. סחרה, according to its stem-word, is that which encompasses anything round about, and here beside צנּה, a weapon of defence surrounding the body on all sides; therefore not corresponding to the Syriac sḥārtā', a stronghold (סהר, מסגּרת), but to Syriac sabrā', a shield. The Targum translates צנּה with תּריסא, θυρεός, and סחרה with עגילא, which points to the round parma. אמתּו is the truth of the divine promises. This is an impregnable defence (a) in war-times, Psalm 91:5, against nightly surprises, and in the battle by day; (b) in times of pestilence, Psalm 91:6, when the destroying angel, who passes through and destroys the people (Exodus 11:4), can do no harm to him who has taken refuge in God, either in the midnight or the noontide hours. The future יהלך is a more rhythmical and, in the signification to rage (as of disease) and to vanish away, a more usual form instead of ילך. The lxx, Aquila, and Symmachus erroneously associate the demon name שׁד with ישׁוּד. It is a metaplastic (as if formed from שׁוּד morf de) future for ישׁד, cf. Proverbs 29:6, ירוּן, and Isaiah 42:4, ירוּץ, frangetur. Psalm 91:7 a hypothetical protasis: si cadant; the preterite would signify cediderint, Ew. 357, b. With רק that which will solely and exclusively take place is introduced. Burk correctly renders: nullam cum peste rem habebis, nisi ut videas. Only a spectator shalt thou be, and that with thine own eyes, being they self inaccessible and left to survive, conscious that thou thyself art a living one in contrast with those who are dying. And thou shalt behold, like Israel on the night of the Passover, the just retribution to which the evil-doers fall a prey. שׁלּמה, recompense, retribution, is a hapaxlegomenon, cf. שׁלּמים, Isaiah 34:8. Ascribing the glory to God, the second voice confirms or ratifies these promises.